Front diff slack

[Robbers Dog]

Hi Guys
My 94 3.0t SSR-X has a wobbly front diff and I wondered if you could help.
It drives fine, goes in and out of 4 wheel drive fine and does off road stuff fine.
I was under it about 3 months and 5000k ago and whilst having a prod around found that by hanging in the drivers side front drive shaft, I could rattle it around with about 3mm movement on the output shaft from the diff. I had previously noticed a slight rattle from the front on potholes etc but thought it was front brake pad rattle.

Its at the garage today getting a service and I asked the guy to look at it. His view was that it was probably a bearing.

With your vast collective knowledge, has anyone had similar, how far will it go until it explodes (does it turn over when in 2 wheel drive), how much, and anyone got a good spare?

Thanks

[Robbers Dog]

Checked with garage (he still has it on the lift) and had the drive shaft off when checking it. Drive shaft rock solid, Diff flange wobbly. Would have loved it to be the cheap option but it appears that it aint..........

Thanks for the pointer though, it was worth a check

[TonyN]

The diff ends of the shaft always seem to have a lot of play in them, even from new, The driverside plugs straight into the spider gears of the diff, there isn't a bearing supporting the flange as such. It only has a bush/seal in the diff housing.

As long as it isn't leaking oil, its generally OK.

The rattling is probably the bush on the inside of the hub, do a search for 'Bronze bush', its been well documented.

[andycook]

yes - I looked into this a while back as i noticed same
as Tony says, it seems to be normal

I also remeber someone crawling under a new Hilux and that had play in the flange too!